‘Deadpool 2’ Review Round-Up: Here’s What Critics Are Saying

Finally, the embargo has lifted on the second adventure of Marvel’s resident loudmouth mutant. Deadpool 2 held its premiere tonight and with the review embargo being lifted, the floodgates have opened. Does Fox have another X-Men hit on their hands? In short, absolutely they do.

The film current boasts a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 7.4/10. While some criticism was aimed at the film being overstuffed, the praise garnered revolved around the performances, action sequences and comedy. Check out Talkies Network’s review round-up below and check back on Friday for our official review!

Deadpool 2 ultimately lacks the charm that made the first film such a treat. The sequel doesn’t have the advantage that the shock value of the first film’s humor had and struggles to be more than just Deadpool redux before finding its own voice in the beginning.

In an era where massive studio comic-book franchises make up more and more of our media diets, the “Deadpool” property serves a similar emetic function: allowing the detritus accumulated from hours and hours spent bingeing on cinematic world-building, world-saving, world-destroying, chosen ones and grim-darkness to be rudely, messily expelled in an orgy of bad taste.

Gleefully trying to outdo the original, “Deadpool 2” serves up a veritable smorgasbord of pop-culture and comic-book references, from James Bond to X-Men. There’s a hit-miss quality to that, but enough of them connect to ensure that this proudly R-rated action vehicle won’t leave many of the fans who helped will it into existence feeling disappointed.

Such concerns might not bother Deadpool 2’s core audience too much, but they implicitly suggest that core audience is white and male, and that everybody else ought to just lighten up. It’s easy to do so, given Reynolds’ undiminished charm, and the generous flow of weapons-grade gags. But now that it’s no longer the underdog, Deadpool is in severe danger of punching down rather than up.

One final note: It should go without saying at this point, but any viewer who hops up once the credits begin will be sorry. While its most delightful surprises are toward the beginning of the credit roll, it’s worth sitting through to the end — especially for any viewer who was too distracted by the decapitations, fireballs and impalings of the final battle sequence to make out the lyrics of the Carmina Burana-ish chorus playing in the background.

No worries. Despite a tendency toward elephantitis in story and scope, not to mention blatant franchise pandering, Deadpool 2 still plays like the runt of the comic-book litter. We mean that as a compliment. Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, is, now and forever, a bad boy who can’t shut the hell up.

So I’m happy to say that Reynolds serves up more of what made his Wade Wilson so instantly iconic on the big screen in Deadpool 2, only this time he’s got more of everything: more characters, more plot (which was pretty thin the first time out), more jokes, and more money to spend. And in this case, more is actually more: Deadpool 2 still delivers all the gore, brutal action, and wildly coarse humor of the first (if a bit less of the raunch), only with a better story, bigger, more expansive action, and some great new characters to play with.

Deadpool 2 — even better than the very fine 2016 original — is, rather like its protagonist, sort of the anti-superhero movie. There’s no looming apocalypse or badder-than-bad supervillain that often make these films so unctuously serious (which also renders them faintly ridiculous). Rather, the tone is almost entirely light-hearted, with occasional forays into poignancy.

So, are you going to see Deadpool 2 this weekend? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Published by Nick Poulimenakos

Nick Poulimenakos is the Editor-In-Chief of Talkies Network and reports on the film and television industry. He studies management/marketing at the University of Toronto and is a self proclaimed movie /T.V show/comic book know it all.
View all posts by Nick Poulimenakos

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